A war-scarred heart meets its ghost — and the architecture of desire crumbles.
Momoko and Asako are half sisters, daughters of the famous architect Tsuneo Mizuhara, who also have another half sister in Kyôto, Wakako, whom they have not had. While Asako is a sweet young lady, Momoko, the eldest, goes out with whomever she wants, thus hiding the trauma caused by seduction and abandonment during the war by young Keita Aoki. One day Keita re-enters her life.
Acting
Machiko Kyō's controlled devastation — every glance wounds.
Cinematography
Spaces as emotional prisons; Mizuhara's buildings watch silently.
Director
Kōji Shima
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
1956 Japan: women gained suffrage in '47, but cinema still punished female sexual agency. Momoko's 'promiscuity' reads differently now.
Director Kōji Shima was blacklisted during the Red Purge; this studio assignment was considered 'safe' melodrama. The surveillance of women mirrors state paranoia.
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